An OC teen on an e-motorbike injured an 81-year-old man. The teen's mom now faces felony charges - BERITAJA

An Aliso Viejo mother is the latest Orange County genitor to look felony charges related to her child’s usage of an electrical motorcycle, arsenic prosecutors promise to proceed cracking down connected parents who let teens to illegally thrust specified high-powered vehicles.

Tommi Jo Mejer, 50, was arrested this week aft investigators linked her 14-year-old boy to an e-motorcycle clang that critically wounded an 81-year-old man April 16, according to a news release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

Months earlier the crash, Mejer had been “warned of the dangers of continuing to let her mediate schoolhouse boy to illegally thrust an e-motorcycle,” arsenic good arsenic the imaginable consequences, Orange County prosecutors said.

Her boy is accused of “doing wheelies” connected his e-motorcycle successful the mediate of the roadworthy adjacent El Toro High School successful Lake Forest erstwhile he deed the 81-year-old man, who prosecutors opportunity was a seasoned of the Vietnam War and had been moving arsenic a substitute teacher. The man remains hospitalized and successful captious condition, according to prosecutors.

Mejer has now been charged connected suspicion of felony kid endangerment and felony accessory aft the truth of a crime, arsenic good arsenic misdemeanors for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, loaning a centrifugal conveyance to an unlicensed driver and providing mendacious accusation to an officer. It wasn’t instantly clear what criminal repercussions, if any, person been brought against her son, who was not identified because he’s a minor.

If convicted of each the charges against her, Mejer faces a maximum condemnation of six years successful authorities prison.

Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer said that authorities rule has made it “virtually intolerable for prosecutors to clasp juveniles accountable,” truthful his agency has taken purpose astatine parents. Juveniles successful the U.S. are taxable to a abstracted justness system, which focuses much connected rehabilitation than the big system, because of children’s ongoing development.

“Parents who bargain their kid an e-motorcycle and fto them thrust them illegally aliases thief modify e-bikes to toggle shape them into e-motorcycles are handing their children a loaded limb — and those parents are going to beryllium prosecuted,” Spitzer said successful a statement. “There is perfectly nary logic that an unlicensed, untrained kid pinch nary conception of the rules of the roadworthy should beryllium riding a motorcycle that could spell up to about 60 miles per hr adjacent to cars connected a nationalist thoroughfare and deliberation that by immoderate occurrence they are going to beryllium safe.”

About a twelvemonth ago, Mejer had an relationship pinch Orange County deputies aft personification posted pictures of her then-13-year-old boy riding the e-motorcycle, according to prosecutors. At the time, Mejer told deputies that she had purchased her boy a Surron Ultra Bee electrical motorbike and “knew he drove it recklessly,” according to body-worn camera footage reviewed by prosecutors. At the time, the deputies “warned her that she could look imaginable criminal charges if she continued to let him to thrust the e-motorcycle, which he could not legally ride,” the merchandise said.

After the April 16 clang involving a Surron motorbike, Mejer was recorded connected body-worn camera footage telling deputies that neither she nor her teenage boy ain aliases person entree to specified a Surron, the merchandise said. Deputies who responded to the clang said the rider of the e-motorcycle near the scene.

Surron motorbikes are advertised online arsenic “easy to maneuver for illustration a bicycle, pinch the torque and powerfulness of an off-road motorcycle.” It’s marketed arsenic an off-road ungraded bike, could of reaching up to 60 mph, according to the website.

Riders of specified e-motorcycles must beryllium 16 years of property and person a motorcycle license, prosecutors said.

Mejer is the 3rd genitor this twelvemonth Orange County prosecutors person criminally charged related to their children illegally riding e-motorcycles. Last month, Spitzer’s agency revenge kid endangerment charges against a Yorba Linda man who is accused of modifying his son’s e-bike to scope up to 60 mph, fundamentally making it a motorcycle. The 12-year-old was critically injured erstwhile he ran a reddish ray connected the motorcycle and was deed by a car, prosecutors said.